Pour-Over Vs. Drip Brewer | A Showdown of Laziness vs. Extraction Perfection

I have a confession to make. 

As the owner of Sagebrush, my daily morning cup of coffee comes from our home Moccamaster coffee pot. I don’t use a V60 pour over, a Chemex, or an Aeropress daily.  We’ve kept a high-end espresso machine in the ‘coffee area’ of our house and no one noticed when I took it into the shop (except that we had more counter space). 

If there is a new brewing method out there, I buy it, try it, and shelve it. That is my modus operandi.

So, the question is, why? If there are 100 different ways to brew coffee and I have them all at my fingertips, why do I just go with the solution that 95% of the coffee brewing world uses? 

To answer that, let's take a closer look at the differences between a drip brewer and a pour over. 

What is a drip brewer & pour over?

A pour over brewer is a broad term that includes a ton of different brewers.

The most common of these is likely the classic drip coffee pot. However, in a ‘manual brew’ scenario, the most common pour over is the Hario V60 dripper (specifically the 02 size). For me, the best drip brewer to examine is the Technivorm Moccamaster. Technivorm has some very specific benefits over other drip brewers that I think are key.  I’ll touch on that in a minute, but we also have a video that gives you a full overview of this brewer if you want to know more.

For reference, in our coffee shop, our #1 selling drink is a V60 pour over with one of our gold label coffees. We love so much about this brewing method and I want to show you why it is head and shoulders above a drip cup of coffee, even though I brew drip coffee daily.

My drip isn’t just any drip

When you think of drip coffee, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? 

Maybe it’s an old Mr. Coffee coffeemaker--the one that was white, but is now mostly yellowed? Or perhaps it is a nice Capresso coffee brewer? Maybe you think of a can of coffee and scooping it into the flat bottomed filter basket. 

I’d like you to remove all of those images from your mind and reset the idea of a drip coffee maker. Drip coffee can be easy & great, but you must want to make it that way and be willing to pay for it.

Many of my friends love the routine of morning coffee. They grind and pour over their coffee in one of many brewing methods. The ritual and routine and first sip of that process is part of what they love about coffee. 

That’s not me.

When I first wake up, I just love coffee. I don’t want to settle for bad coffee (or utility coffee), but I normally don’t want to work for it. 

This is where the luxury of a Baratza Vario-W grinder and a Technivorm Moccamaster come in. We use the Vario-W because it is dialed in to grind 58.2 grams of coffee each morning at the grind level we love. Then the Moccamaster brews our coffee to the perfect temperature. It is the simplicity of a nearly automatic process, but the quality of our dreams (which is good, because most mornings I’m still dreaming into my 2^nd cup).  It does a great job with water temperature and spray over the grounds. This quality is so consistent, this has been my go-to method of brewing my morning coffee for about 15 years. It's pricey, but I think it is worth every penny.

I’m lazy and this is easier for 2

There are WAY less expensive ways to brew an amazing cup of coffee. 

The Vario-W is the epitome of laziness. It measures the grounds for you to the 10^th of a gram with a push of a button. Do you know what else that can do that? Any $10 scale from the grocery store or Amazon. But I love that convenience and discounted brewers are a perk of owning a coffee business.

The Moccamaster also shows off my laziness. 

I can heat water in one of a hundred different ways. In fact, I have had an instant-hot water tank under my sink before (and we still used the Moccamaster). We have a Fellow pitcher next to our Moccamaster. We have about 10 different pour over tools in the cupboard above the counter. The go-to V60 ceramic filter is next to our coffee cups. Not only is it SUPER easy to get the amazing flavor profile from a V60 pour over, it's noticeably better every time I drink one. And still, I’d prefer to fill the Moccamaster, make a pot, and split it with my wife, Jenna.

V60 is better and I’ll tell you why

So, why is the V60 out there? 

If the Moccamaster makes such a good cup of coffee (and it really does), why does a manual brewer exist? 

The answer is simple and complicated. Two variables are more important than anything else when it comes to coffee extraction. 

#1 is water temperature. The water needs to be between 195 & 205 degrees. That means that if your coffee pot is old and cannot get the water up to temp, it will produce a more bitter cup of coffee. A V60 is an inexpensive way to measure your water temperature every time. 

#2 is flow rate. Depending on your coffee pot, it does not take into account the flow rate for your coffee extraction. That means that it either over-soaks the beans and ends up brewing more like an immersion method or it pours all of the water over the center of the bed and allows for channeling.

Channeling is where the water passes through channels in the bean bed too quickly and in those channels you get a lower extraction yield. The reality is you get pockets of under-extracted coffee and pockets of over-extracted coffee. The under-extracted portions of your coffee will be more sour and less sweet, where the over-extracted will be bitter and hollow. A poorly extracted coffee from a low cost drip brewer will likely give you a little of both of these. Your coffee just plain won’t be as good.  

However, in a V60 brewer, you have the ability to control the extraction very well and pour an amazing coffee of coffee every time. You just have to be willing to manually stand there and pour. Frankly, it doesn’t sound that hard when I put it like that.

So what?

The decision is in your hands. 

You won't be able to enjoy the perfect cup of coffee every single time you drink one, so what are your tolerances? Where are you willing to sacrifice flavor for ease of brewing?  You have to decide for yourself. 

 I’ve chosen to spend money and save time each morning. I feel the Moccamaster gives me a ‘good enough’ cup of coffee each morning to get me to the shop where our amazing baristas can brew me something better. However, on a Saturday, there is nothing like a perfect V60 to start your day.

Whatever your preferences might be for a brewing method, just make sure you pair it with some high-quality, specialty coffee beans to ensure the best experience possible.